The Walking Dead: World Beyond Showrunner Teases Secret About Huck’s Dad

The Walking Dead: World Beyond co-creator and showrunner Matthew Negrete hints the Walking Dead spinoff has more to reveal about the apparent relation between Huck (Annet Mahendru) and the CRM's Lt. Col. Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond). In Sunday's "The Sky Is a Graveyard," a flashback to Huck's 48-hour "recon mission" tells us it was a cover for a secret meeting with Kublek — and Huck has been passing along intel as a soldier-spy in the Civic Republic Military. During the mother-daughter debriefing, where the mole reports the asset is safe, Kublek hands Huck a watch that she recognizes as "dad's."

Asked whether we'll meet Huck's father on this season of World Beyond during an Instagram takeover on Sunday, Negrete replied with five of the "zipper-mouth face" emoji — indicating her father's identity is classified information.

Wading into spoiler territory, Negrete also teased there is "lots more" of Kublek coming in season 2, shooting in early 2021, and confirmed the series takes a darker turn next season by design. In the two-hour season finale airing Sunday, Negrete said "divisions will widen even more" and teased tension building between sisters Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Iris (Aliyah Royale).

Episodes 109 and 110, "The Deepest Cut" and "In This Life," air back-to-back on November 29 before World Beyond returns with its ten-episode second season later in 2021. But viewers won't have to wait until next year to learn more about Huck and Kublek's relationship:

"They referenced dad's watch, which seems to imply that there's a mother-daughter relationship there. I will say that we'll get some answers in the coming episode before the end of the season," Negrete told Entertainment Weekly. "There's obviously going to be a lot more we're going to be exploring in season 2. But I think the thing for the audience to take away from the revelation of who Huck is, is that there really have been clues about how she sees the world and how she operates and how she's willing to do some pretty horrible things for what she believes is the greater good."

In episode 105, "Madman Across the Water," Huck told Hope she reached Omaha after the city's security found her "floating down the Missouri river in a raft, arm broken and messed up, not sure if I was coming or going."

The explanation behind her nickname — her real name is Jennifer — comes before a series of early apocalypse flashbacks in episode 107, "Truth or Dare," revealed Marine Jennifer gunned down her unit when disobeying orders to execute civilians.

"I think that if people want to go back and look at some of the things she said over this whole season, there are definite clues in there that can kind of pinpoint her philosophy of the world. I think it also might recontextualize the Huck flashbacks we saw in episode 7," Negrete said. "It just seemed like she was willing to do a horrible thing for what she saw as the greater good, so it's an example of that. But looking at those flashbacks, I think that audiences may find some other clues, let's say, that may hint at maybe more of an origin story about how she became who she is and that there'll be more blanks we'll be filling very soon."

Asked to confirm if Huck and Kublek are mother and daughter, Negrete said, "I will say that, if nothing else, there seems to be a mother-daughter relationship. There are more things to unfold there, but they referenced dad's watch, so it sort of leads one to believe that there's some sort of a familial connection happening there."

The Walking Dead: World Beyond airs its two-hour season 1 finale on Sunday, November 29, on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.